Comma.ai, the venture established by hacker George Hotz, is under federal scrutiny following five reported incidents involving the company’s aftermarket hands-free driving assistance technology, with two of those resulting in three fatalities.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) reported this week that the incidents involved Comma devices that failed to identify or react to slow or stationary vehicles in the same lane. In four of the incidents, up to 11 individuals sustained injuries, some of them severe.

Some of these incidents, including at least one of the fatal occurrences, may have involved “forked” or altered versions of Comma.ai’s software, according to the ODI.

Comma.ai was not immediately available for comment. Hotz, who stepped back from the startup’s daily operations in 2022, did not promptly respond to a request for comment.

Established in 2015, Comma.ai produces devices that can be fitted to a variety of contemporary vehicles. The devices — along with Comma.ai’s software, “openpilot,” — are capable of managing a vehicle’s Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Automated Lane Centering (ALC) systems to execute functions “akin to Tesla Autopilot and GM Super Cruise,” based on the startup’s website. The aim is to “make driving relaxed.”

According to Comma.ai’s website, “openpilot can steer, accelerate, and brake automatically for other automobiles within its lane.” Nevertheless, similar to Tesla and GM, Comma.ai cautions drivers that they “must always be ready to regain manual control of the vehicle at any moment, by pressing either pedal or the cancel button.” The company’s device includes a camera-based driver monitoring system to detect distracted or drowsy drivers.

One of the two fatal incidents reportedly occurred in February 2026 in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. A 2022 Toyota RAV4, which was operating FrogPilot, a third-party variant of openpilot, collided with a stationary first responder vehicle.

The Louisiana State Police provided details of a February crash that seemingly aligns with the report in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s database. In its account of the incident, the agency noted that two rear-seat passengers of the Toyota lost their lives.

This story is ongoing…